THE reigning champions showed their determination and character when it was need of the hour.

Chasing a tough target of 315 runs in the fourth innings, Vidarbha batters kept their nerves to beat Madhya Pradesh by five wickets in their Col CK Nayudu Trophy semi-final at Alembic 2 Cricket Ground in Vadodara on Thursday.

Former skipper Mohit Kale (77*; 138b, 7x4, 1x6) and captain Siddhesh Wath (40*; 38b, 6x4) stood like rock making sure Vidarbha got a chance to defend title with their unfinished sixth wicket partnership of 81 runs.

When the day started, Vidarbha were 224-4 needing 91 more runs for a win. Kale and Harsh Dubey (64; 91b, 10x4), who completed a seven-wicket haul and a fifty on Wednesday, started the proceedings. But after the duo had scored eleven runs in the morning, Dubey was adjudged lbw to Rishabh Chouhan with the batsmen adding seven to his overnight score. Kale and Wath, who played his natural attacking game, helped the team cross the line with ease.

Coach Ranjit Paradkar was confident of the boys getting the job done.

“In the first innings, it was a rare batting collapse but I had confident in the boys and knew that even if we had to chase over 350 in the fourth innings, the boys would do it,” said Paradkar, who was coach of the Vidarbha team that won the first BCCI title winning the Vijay Merchant Trophy (Under-16) in 2016-17 while talking to ‘The Hitavada’.

“After a poor show in first innings, I had a chat with the boys one on one. But there were no drastic changes. Mohit and Siddhesh are senior players and it was expected from the two to do well and they did it in style. On the bowling front, Harsh (Dubey) is doing a good and is well backed by Parth (Rekhade) and other bowlers,” said the former Vidarbha Ranji skipper.

On electing to bowl first in a crucial game like semi-finals, Paradkar said that on the first morning the wicket was a bit damp.